hen houses – Can hen be kept as pet? would it be awkward or strange to keep hen as pet in my house instead of dog or cat?

  

Can hen be kept as pet? would it be awkward or strange to keep hen as pet in my house instead of dog or cat?

if i keep a male hen as pet in my house instead of dog or cat, would that make me look like someone very weird?

what are the pros and cons of keeping male hen as pet in suburban house, instead of a dog or cat?

or is it a very stupid thing to do and i should forget about this idea?

Chicken Rearing 101 – How Not To Raise Chickens

Chick: A hatchling

Capon: A castrated male used for meat. (How much could that yield?)

Pullet: A female chicken under one year old.

Hen: A female chicken over one year of age

Rooster: A male chicken over one year of age.

Raising Chickens for the first time can be intimidating. When I first called the Feed Shop, I was trying to sound like a pro. I asked, “Do you sell pullets?” “Yes”, the man replied. “Are they all females?” It’s been an uphill battle ever since.

Pullet parenthood is an much of an adventure as child rearing, only with more feces per pound of body weight. However, I’ve been reading quite a bit on poultry matters. (Yes, my coolness just turned over in its grave.) So if I am correct and I am quite certain I am not, here is how chicken rearin’ goes.

Go to your local feed store and purchase $10.00 worth of chicks and $50 worth of food and supplies. Don’t forget the water dispensers. Buying the metal ones, never plastic is always advised. I have yet to see a metal one.

Next, place the chicks somewhere sheltered, like a bedroom closet. Toss in some highly flammable straw or wood shavings and promptly dangle a glowing heat lamp just above them. Note to self: Update homeowner’s policy.

For the next several weeks feed them 3 lbs of food per day and remove 4 lbs of sh*t per day from the closet. Despite all logic the birds get bigger. As the adult feathers grow in be sure to clip one of their wings. That is one per bird, not just one wing total. If clipping is done late chicks will nest in your toilet. This is a bad thing.

Clipping can be accomplished by tossing your scissors and your body into the heaping mound of chicks, poop and straw. Grab a wiggling screeching bird from the bile pile. Restrain it with one hand. Stretch the wing out with your second hand. Clip off 50% of the wings outer ten feathers with your third hand.

As the birds grow adjust the heat light temperature down by one degree per day. No, this is not actually possible. That’s not my point. You start at 100 degrees for hatchlings then continue down by one degree per day until your bedroom is
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a minimum of 3 degrees cooler than the spring blizzard outside your window.

Once you have frozen your ear to your semi-cannibalistic down pillow and the chicks have grown their adult feathers, they can be moved outside to the coop. I estimate the initial closet rearing stage to have taken five years.

Before the move, experience the Joy of Wing Clipping one more time. Feather clipping never works the first time. No one knows why. Still, after all the hassle you probably don’t want them to fly the coop in under sixty seconds. Of course, if you’re like me, by this time you may be inclined to pack them each a lunch and leave a stack of Greyhound tickets by the open coop gate.

Regarding habitat construction: Hen houses and chicken coops are a competitive art form. There are a myriad of web sites showing off architectural designs from Chicken Chateaus to Bird Bordellos. The meticulous craftsmanship makes my own home look like – well – like a chicken coop.

Always fashionable, I went with a shabby chic motif for my coop. The nesting boxes are an eclectic mix of stolen milk crates affixed to the wall by anything in arms reach. As for the coop itself, there is a gift for tight chicken wire, which eludes me. Quite frankly, my first attempt at a coop looks like Dr. Seuss dropped a hit of acid, blasted some Jefferson Starship and rolled around on the wire with every Who in Whoville. I think I’ll keep it.

Inferior design aside, I ultimately learned a thing or two. The nesting boxes are supposed to be up off the ground. That is correct. For those of you keeping score you just spent two weeks cutting back the birds flight feathers only to hang their houses in the sky. It’s just sick.

Higher than the nest boxes, you are to build a roost. This is where the birds crap at night so they do not crap on your breakfast eggs. Of course the roost is usually OVER the nesting boxes, so whatever you do, don’t use those perforated plastic milk crates.

For young birds maintain a heat light in the hen house. Then on cooler nights an animal with a brain the size of an bulimic toe nail clipping will make the conscious decision to forgo your nest boxes, bypass the instinctual roost and leap into a tanning bed.

And finally there is the feed regime. I asked several experts and read up on feeding as well. Make sure to give your chickens, starter formula, mash, growth formula, start & grow, brood formula, grit, no grit, scraps, no scraps, goat placenta, nothing suggested on the internet, tetramyaicn, no antibiotics, medicated starter, non-medicated starter and never ever switch in-between.

I may not be Queen of the Coop yet, but I’m working on it. Though I am still a zoologist and I still know Birds 101. Here are two myths I can help with. First, you do not need a rooster to get eggs. Most folk, especially those who have never owned chickens, will advise you on chickens. Each will insist you need a rooster for a while to do his manly duties, then you can slip him in the pot. As appealing as this concept is, your pot is a separate issue.

Roosters are only needed to make fertile eggs. Hens are all that is needed to make breakfast eggs. Fertile eggs are just peachy if raising chicks was such a joy the first time you want to repeat the whole freakin’ process. In addition there is always the risk of breaking a fertilized egg open and finding a 50% formed chick fetus hitting your hot skillet. Yum! Years of therapy will follow.

To keep it straight in your mind consider this: You are going about your life. Suddenly massive balls of calcium start stacking up inside your abdomen. Are you going to hold on to them just because you have not had sex lately?

The second bird myth is totally unrelated so I thought I would mention it. Penguins occur in nature from the Equator on Southward. That is down to the Antarctica, not the Arctic! No, they do not hang out with Polar Bears who live in the Arctic. No, you did
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not see them when you worked in Alaska, in the Arctic. Those were puffins. No, I am not sorry you look stupid to all those folks you told penguin tales to.

Yes, some penguin species even reside on the Galapagos Islands at the equator (Cold weather would kill them), not floating around on icebergs – and not in the Arctic! Yes, I realize my eggs are not all in one basket. Delusional, close-minded people who insist you need a rooster to fertilize your penguin eggs so polar bears won’t loose their food supply drove me crazy!

By: Nola L. Kelsey

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

The preceding was an excerpt from the scathingly wicked satire Bitch Unleashed: The Harsh Realities of Goin’ Country. A free e-book copy of Bitch Unleashed is available on Nola Kelsey’s web site at www.NolaKelsey.com.

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Location may be the number one issue determining success or failure when growing poultry. Choosing the correct place in your backyard can boost the chances of raising poultry profitably. If you pick out the wrong place it may in the long run lead to unhealthy and unproductive birds. This is why it’s imperative to build your chicken shed in the best possible spot. It’s especially simple to overlook something that may appear trivial when building your chicken coop, but later on turn out to be extremely important.

Before beginning construction take the time to think about some important things and you will typically be rewarded with happier and healthier chickens. In this commentary we will talk about the most critical items that should be taken into consideration when determining the ideal location is concerned. There are certainly additional items, but water drainage, air flow, and water accessibility are the three most important.

Unacceptable drainage can lead to lots of dilemmas. At whatever time the ground becomes wet the water will drain and disappear into the ground or puddle up and turn the ground to mud. Proper water drainage keeps the soil drier and less mud-covered. Puddles of water combined with chicken droppings are a quick method of producing disease. The birds will rapidly track that mixture everywhere, including into the poultry housing where the feeders, waterers, and nest boxes are located. The food and water can get contaminated and the eggs will become soiled. Choosing a site with superior water drainage will remove most contamination fears.

The direction that the wind blows is another issue that needs to be considered when determining the ideal spot for your housing. Construct your structure in a spot where wind will not take the odors toward your home, and even more notably, toward a neighbor’s residence. Having discontented neighbors is not what you want. And nice air flow will do away with potentially injurious and unpleasant odors in the chicken housing area.

Position your poultry shed in a place where impending growth is possible. You may wish to keep 6 or 8 chickens right now, but who knows what the future holds? If you erect a chicken house that will hold 6 or 8 birds without room for expansion, what will happen later on once you decide you want to raise 24 birds? It’s a lot less trouble adding on to existing housing than it is making a completely different poultry shed in another spot. Keep your choices open and set aside room for future growth.

Your location ought to be nearby to water and electricity. Without a close water supply you may possibly end up toting heavy water fountains back and forth on a daily basis merely to make available sanitary water for your chickens. Automatic watering is possible with a nearby water faucet which will also eliminate much manual labor. As a bonus, water will certainly make any essential cleaning activities less trouble.

If you would like your hens to supply you with eggs the entire year you will have to supply artificial light. Pullets must be provided a minimum quantity of light per day to lay eggs dependably. To make this light available for your poultry you must have electricity. Put your poultry coops in regions with existing electricity.

In freezing climates where the winters are harsh, poultry coops should be facing south. This will provide the utmost sunlight, keeping the chickens warmer. The additional rays from the sun will also keep the housing drier and cleaner. Take a little time to think about these things previous to deciding on a permanent spot and you will considerably boost the possibility of success.

About The Author

Joshua has had fun raising chickens for over 25 years. He has successfully raised all kinds of poultry and has constructed all of his own poultry coops, brooders, and feeders throughout those many years. He has effectively raised chickens for egg and meat production and loves to help others do likewise. Look at his site to find out more with regard to building a high quality chicken shed.

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